"To get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio," Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw writes in a message on the EA blog. "On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game."

While Bradshaw freely admits in the post that this is "kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy," she says that the entire team "really feel[s] bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent."

How could EA have underestimated their server architecture needs so badly? She put it bluntly: "a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. "

Bradshaw also gave a quick update on EA's efforts to repair the servers, saying server capacity has increased by 120 percent in the last 48 hours, leading to an 80 percent drop in "disrupted experiences." While the problems aren't totally fixed yet, Bradshaw says she hopes to be able to say the issues are behind them sometime this weekend.

"Well, we've got your money, and there's no way we're letting go of it - but we have to appear to be doing something, so here's something you didn't want and costs us nothing."

208 posts | registered Dec 31, 2007

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

At least EA is keeping the concerns over the damage always online DRM can do to a game fresh in the minds of consumers. So, cheers for that I guess. I'm not really sure why they think letting people download something for free that they didn't want enough to pay for is going to do any good.

So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.

Incredibly insightful! With such a restrictive beta, limiting players to an extremely stripped down version for only an hour, can you honestly be surprised when you released control on this incomplete game your hamster wheel powered servers crashed and burned like the traffic jams in the poorly designed game?

At first, this seems like a good-hearted thing, and a genuine apology... until you realize it's about the money. It costs them nothing to give away a free downloadable game on Origin. It costs them a lot more to give out refunds.

Too little, too late and quite frankly, still an insult to their customers. Not to mention how they kept patronising legitimate issues with marketing spin BS. Offer refunds to show true sincerity like other 3rd party distributors or GTFO. As it is their product/service contravenes federal law in my country which supersedes any eula I signed up to. They really have no clue how much they've exposed themselves to litigation. Just need to find someone with enough money and time to pursue the matter so as to set a precedent in the courts. This would have the side-benefit of reigning in not only Origin, but Uplay and Steam as well.

In addition to your statutory rights, goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law.You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and for compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.

Bold for emphasis.

But truly the biggest pile of faeces was the statement about their servers being necessary to run the game on most peoples hardware. I said it before and i'll say it again; if my 7 year old gaming rig can run FarCry 3 on med-high settings - it can damn well run this with no server-side 'help'. Let alone a modern machine with SSD and LGA2011/1155 chipset.

"a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. "

Didn't they only let people play for an hour at a time in beta?

Yeah, they never saw people playing, you know, real games. Or in realistic quantities. By their own design. Dumb is an understatement, and possible disingenuous, since I think they're planning on skating through this mess and having everyone forget about the onerous always online requirement.

hm looks like they're getting desperate here, limited time 2 for 1 deal on origin, buy simcity now and get another game free until 3/18!

even though you won't be able to play this one yet, we'll throw in another to keep you busy while you wait. this deadline exists to, uh, give us time to make sure we compensate all our launch day supporters, and totally not to solicit more sales, out of the more cautious fans who have been trolling this freak show with the smug "I told you so" comments all over the internets. pay no attention to the broken mp/drm scheme, hurry up and buy!

Is it just me or did anyone notice they did not specify if it was you get to pick a game from their catalog or THEY get to pick a game from their catalog?

I also find it interesting they are using the same old tactics similar to the old Nintendo days where to appease lawsuits they would say, hey, ok, we'll give you coupons to buy more of our product. Seems this might be just a way to inflate their Origin numbers and try to lock people in to their DRM instead of others like Steam.

I also find it interesting they are using the same old tactics similar to the old Nintendo days where to appease lawsuits they would say, hey, ok, we'll give you coupons to buy more of our product.

On several occasions Blizzard handed out 1-3 free days of WoW (max value: ~$1.50) when patch outages were particularly nasty.

Of course, at the time, WoW was basically subsidizing Blizzard's dawdling around with SC2 and D3. So I guess they would be reluctant to give up that revenue stream. Much in the same way that Steam allows Valve to kick a game around for 5-10 years before releasing it, or just canning the project entirely, or letting it rot in the mists o' Duke Nukem Forever.

OK, we understand you're really angry right now, because you can't pay your videogame. That's why we will be sending you some vaguely unspecified coupon ten days from now. By the time you get it, SimCity will be fixed (we hope!) and you will probably forget to use it. But in case you do remember, you can buy Spore again because that's what our marketing research says you simulation fans like.

"a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. "

Didn't they only let people play for an hour at a time in beta?

Yes they created this problem building the game in a glass server side house thinking "the cloud" would save them when in fact it was the method of the games destruction... my hope is eventually people can play this game offline locally as this would greatly reduce the load on their precious cloud servers.

I remember from high school commerce class that in canada that pretty much any contract can be cancled with 24-72 hours with out cause (this was to avoid coercion as a factor) and i believe there's a 30 day cancelation of any internet sale/contract if the order has not been filled. As the contract is for a working game and the game delivered is definitely not working and EA is a canadian company ... Isn't there some smart pissed off gaming addicted lawyer out there with some free time on his hands?

The exact thing happened during the Origin BF3 launch: EA released with significantly less server capacity that the initial peak requirements and people raged, EA apologized and said they were dumb, etc. This is not a CS issue for them, just a metrics/bottom-line issue.

1: Set up the server infrastructure to accommodate expected medium-term use (1-2 months after release).

2: Deny all refunds and eventually the less dedicated players will stop trying, clearing up space for the diehards that can abide waiting a week to log in painlessly.

No less money is made, no costs required to accommodate initial peak server traffic levels that will taper off by 50% in two weeks and 75% in a month. Those that stay and play can expect an expansion pack in 6 months with some things that are obviously absent. In fact, man, I bet they're just kicking themselves right now (With boots made out of Benjamins)!

I remember from high school commerce class that in canada that pretty much any contract can be cancled with 24-72 hours with out cause (this was to avoid coercion as a factor) and i believe there's a 30 day cancelation of any internet sale/contract if the order has not been filled. As the contract is for a working game and the game delivered is definitely not working and EA is a canadian company ... Isn't there some smart pissed off gaming addicted lawyer out there with some free time on his hands?

Coercion? I learned that law was to prevent your dumb wife from bleeding you dry with door to door sold vacuums and encyclopedias.

Lucy Bradshaw says, "a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta."

This, of course, is total baloney. The servers didn't work during the Beta either! I couldn't connect to a server and neither could any of my friends. EA had to know that this was going to happen because they had major server issues for the entire Beta weekend.

I can't believe EA thinks that they can lie their way out of this. This is the definition of bad PR. They're destroying their long-term value by treating customers, and the media, like dullards. I'm not an EA or Maxis "hater" by any stretch, I'm just trying to set the record straight: they're totally full of it.